Since the BP oil spill occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, over six million gallons of oil have poured into the water. Now you can see what's happening firsthand on YouTube, through a live stream of the leak on PBS NewsHour's YouTube channel.Today, BP will begin their 'top kill' procedure, which will attempt to drill mud into the well to block the flowing oil. Thanks to the urging of Congress you'll be able to witness the entire process in real-time on YouTube.

Now that you can see what's going on, PBS and YouTube want you to submit your best ideas via Google Moderator, on how to stop this environmental catastrophe. PBS NewsHour will air some of the top YouTube submissions in their broadcast tomorrow evening and online:

Many of you have already come up with creative solutions on how to stop the leak or clean up the spill, and you’re using video to make these ideas come to life. Here are a few innovative examples:

Tune in to the live stream here, and if you have ideas you think BP should hear, submit them before midnight tomorrow. For information on the oil spill, including the latest imagery of the spill and information on how you can help, visit oilspill.

In five years, YouTube has become a window on to the global world of creativity, and a reminder that great creativity is not the preserve of big agencies from major markets.

More than that, it’s also a sobering reminder that consumers can often be every bit as creative as the professionals.

But there’s no doubt that the video-sharing site has completely revolutionised how people approach advertising – whether it’s providing creatives with an alternative source of inspiration, allowing ads to enjoy a longer shelf-life, encouraging consumers to get directly involved with the commercial message or helping brands to produce more effective advertising on even smaller budgets.

And it’s opened up ads to commercial audiences well beyond the markets for which the work was originally created.

So while YouTube has enabled the UK to showcase such talent as Susan Boyle and Paul Potts to the world, it has also allowed the Great British Public to enjoy ads such as the iconic “carousel” campaign created for Philips by Tribal DDB Amsterdam and the epic “rollerbabies” spot for Evian by BETC Euro RSCG, which had been circulating around the internet months before it ever hit UK TV screens.

This sort of exposure means that we are no longer surprised by the talent that steps up on to the podium when the Cannes Lions get dished out in June.

Even with the ceremony still a month away, you’ve probably already laughed along to the Cannes hopeful “smell like a man” Old Spice spot by Wieden & Kennedy Portland and immersed yourself in Euro RSCG’s campaign for Dos Equis, which introduces “the most interesting man in the world”.

So here’s Campaign’s selection of some of the best ads from around the world. They’re not necessarily new but they’re currently riding high in YouTube rankings.

Some of the ads we’ve chosen to spotlight will make you laugh (should balloon animals simulating sex really be that funny?), while others, such as the Orange “airball” or Movistar “connected” work, may leave you with a lump in your throat. You may even see a campaign for the first time that will provide the inspiration for your next piece of work.

From an epic US Super Bowl spot to a viral that forms the basis of a Swedish experiential campaign, sit back and enjoy a selection of the most entertaining, most intriguing and most impactful ads from beyond the London village.

Want to know where Kelis’ love of bodypaint stems from? Or her thoughts on Tina Turner and Sheryl Crowe? If so, head for her video below and prepare yourself for a love-bombing from the singer, who has just released her first album for almost four years, “Flesh Tone”, and is clearly very happy about it.

Described as “a best-kept secret” by the Black-Eyed Peas’ will.i.am -- strange when you think that she has tracks including “Caught Out There”, “Milkshake” and “Trick Me” to her name – Kelis has spent nearly four years out the limelight. Her comeback video, “Acapella”, features one reason for her absence, with one-year-old son, Knight, making an appearance in the final shot, but also underlines a departure from her former R&B sound.

The collection of videos that Kelis has drawn together maybe offers a few clues to this new path, so click below to see her talk through the selections:

So, if you ever wondered what Kelis likes to listen while she is kicking around at home, now you know: Zero 7. At the same time, you also know how to get into her good books: follow in the footsteps of Empire Of The Sun and go to one of her gigs. You also have maybe the inkling of an idea of the passions that drive her -- love being prime among them. Having armed you with this knowledge, here’s hoping that you enjoy Kelis’ curation. And we don’t know about you, but on the strength of this we’re looking forward to getting hold of “Flesh Tone” – it looks like being a fascinating listen.

Five years ago, after months of late nights, testing and preparation, YouTube’s founders launched the first beta version of YouTube.com in May, with a simple mission: give anyone a place to easily upload their videos and share them with the world. Whether you were an aspiring filmmaker, a politician, a proud parent, or someone who just wanted to connect with something bigger, YouTube became the place where you could broadcast yourself.

Over time, these aspirations have created a vibrant and inspiring community that helped transform a murmur of interest into something far greater than any of us ever could have imagined. Today, thanks to you, our site has crossed another milestone: YouTube exceeds over two billion views a day. That’s nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major U.S. television networks combined.

What started as a site for bedroom vloggers and viral videos has evolved into a global platform that supports HD and 3D, broadcasts entire sports seasons live to 200+ countries. We bring feature films from Hollywood studios and independent filmmakers to far-flung audiences. Activists document social unrest seeking to transform societies, and leading civic and political figures stream interviews to the world.

To celebrate our birthday, today we’re launching the YouTube Five Year channel. There, you’ll find the “My YouTube Story” project which features people from all over describing how YouTube has changed or shaped their lives.

Please add your own story to the mix! You can upload your video here -- and it may be selected to appear on the channel’s video wall or map.

The channel also hosts an interactive timeline containing some of the most important moments and memes in our short history. It was tough to pick -- and just scratches the surface of all the amazing things that have happened on YouTube over the years. What else? We’ve asked a handful of luminaries like Conan O’Brien, Vint Cerf and Katie Couric to curate playlists showcasing their favorite videos on the subjects they know best.

Since we never could have predicted all that happened in YouTube’s first five years, we certainly can’t imagine what the future will look like. But we do know there’s a lot more to be done. For instance, we want to make it even easier for you to sort through and find the videos that matter to you. Although the average user spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube, that’s tiny compared to the five hours a day people spend watching TV. Clearly, we need to give you more reason to watch more videos! And we want to give you all the tools and support to make YouTube both your career and your community. After all, this is only the beginning of the video revolution. We’re just getting started.

Melinda teaches at a high school in San Francisco and recently reached out to us with a problem. Her students just finished a video history project that she wanted to share with their parents and classmates. But she was concerned about posting the videos publicly because she didn’t want the whole world to find them (frankly, neither did her students). Melinda told us YouTube’s private sharing options -- a 25-person cap that’s limited to other YouTube users -- didn’t work for her. She needed an alternative option to privately share her students’ talent.

As a result we have rolled out a new choice that will help Melinda and other people like her: unlisted videos.

With this feature, you can mark your videos as "unlisted." This means only people who have the link to the video will be able to watch it. It won’t appear in any of YouTube’s public pages, in search results, on your personal channel or on the browse page. It’s a private video, except you don’t need a YouTube account to watch it and there is no limit to the number of people who can view it. You’ll get a link when you upload the video and then it’s up to you to decide who to share it with. Unlisted is the perfect option for that class project, video from last summer’s family reunion or your secret Broadway audition tape.

Just remember, the video can be viewed by anyone with the link, so only give it to people you trust! For more information, check out our Help Centre page.

Today Music Tuesday is presided over by Australian band Pendulum, who have not only succeeded in filling stadia worldwide (shifting a million records in the process), but prove that they can put together a pretty impressive YouTube playlist when asked.

Pendulum, who originally hail from Perth and moved to the UK in 2003, have managed to yoke the near-nuclear energy levels of drum ‘n’ bass and the wider atmospherics of electronica to a more familiar rock sound, resulting in the breakout success of their second album, “In Silico”, which has driven nigh on 10 million views of the videos uploaded to their Pendulumlive channel. They are now poised to release their third LP, "Immersion", on May 24.

“When we are making an album, we sit for hours in the studio,” explains vocalist Rob Swire. “YouTube is an inevitable entertainment destination and we are always finding little things on YouTube. I think we found our current drummer on YouTube, so that says it all, really.”

In light of which, we were looking forward to what the band would draw from the extensive catalogue of music uploaded to YouTube. See Swire and Gareth McGrillen talk through their selections below, and watch their complete playlist:

What is interesting is that the band appears to have settled on videos that manage to represent the music they accompany in a very visual way – whether that be the incredibly clever “Star Guitar” from The Chemical Brothers, the frantic drive of Cancer Bats’ “Sabotage” or the brain-rattling dubstep basslines of Noisia and Foreign Beggars’ “Contact” -- and it sounds like Pendulum are putting a lot of thought into looking to produce similar pieces.

“Pendulum videos are a relatively new thing,” explains Swire. “We haven’t really flexed our video muscles yet. We’ve done seven, with mixed results. But “Watercolour” is probably the best one so far.”

Which suggests exciting things to come. In which case: bring on "Immersion"...